Video cameras on mobile devices are nearly ubiquitous. With so many cameras being used, there are large numbers of videos being captured and then viewed. Video may be captured and viewed in different scenarios. For example, a user may capture a video on their smart phone and then watch their own video. In “see-what-I-see” mode, a user may capture a video on their smart phone and then transmit it to someone else to watch, perhaps in real-time as events are unfolding. Additionally, video cameras may be used for other real-time applications including video calling. Unlike cameras fixed on a tripod or even webcams that are relatively motionless on a laptop, mobile phones tend to move significantly while capturing videos, particularly in the see-what-I-see scenario.
Video cameras that are moving may produce videos that yield a sub-optimal viewing experience. The video that is captured may include significant noise or significant artifacts due to the movement of the camera. The amount of noise and the significance of the artifacts may be related to the frame capture rate and encoding speed. When the camera is moving faster than a threshold speed, then the frame capture rate, encoding, and transmission may not be able to account for the device motion. The video produced when the frame capture rate, encoding, and transmission cannot keep up with the moving camera may be unpleasant to view for different reasons. In some cases, a viewer may even become motion sick if they attempt to watch the video. Although the video may be substantially unwatchable, the video still consumes memory when stored on the capturing device, still consumes processor cycles when encoded or decoded, still consumes bandwidth when transmitted, and still consumes memory on a receiving device.
Both memory and bandwidth are finite resources. Consuming finite resources with substantially worthless video is inefficient. Additionally, bandwidth may be expensive, particularly when the video is being transmitted over a cellular network, satellite network, or other network. Users may be disappointed to learn they have paid for the transmission or receipt of substantially worthless video that makes them seasick. Capturing, storing, and transmitting video also consumes other resources like battery power on a smart phone. The battery power may be consumed by the device processor encoding/decoding a video stream that has an undesirable signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. Users may be disappointed to waste their battery power on an unwatchable video.
Conventionally, when a camera detects that it is moving while capturing video, the camera may increase its frame capture rate or other capture parameters in an attempt to mitigate motion artifacts in individual frames. Improving the frame capture rate may freeze the moving scenery better, with higher fidelity, but may do nothing to address the motion sickness phenomenon. While blurring or artifacts may be mitigated by a higher capture rate, the motion sickness induced by watching such a video may actually be increased. When a camera increases its frame capture rate, additional memory may be required and additional coding and decoding may be required. Additionally, more frames may be sent between a capturing device and a viewing device. Thus, increasing the frame capture rate when camera motion is detected may actually exacerbate problems associated with a moving camera. For example, more memory may be used, more battery power may be used, and more bandwidth may be consumed, all to produce a video that is still substantially worthless or that makes a viewer motion sick.